The Devialet Silver Phantom speaker is undoubtedly powerful, but its absurdly high price is hard to swallow no matter how good it sounds.

How much is good sound quality worth to you? How does $2,390 sound? That's what Devialet is asking for its Phantom Silver wireless speaker—and that's just for one. If you want stereo separation, you're looking at an investment nearing the $5,000 mark. That makes this review purely academic for most of the world's population. Beyond the exclusivity of the Phantom line, there's the question of whether the speaker delivers audio performance in line with its sky-high price. Well, there's certainly no denying the Silver Phantom sounds absolutely wonderful, and delivers some of the most powerful audio we've heard from a single speaker. But the cost of entry is hard to get past, no matter how good the sound quality is.

Design

There are three versions of the Devialet's Phantom wireless speakers—Phantom ($1,990), Silver Phantom ($2,390), and Gold Phantom ($2,990), all of which have varying levels of power, but all of which are mono. The Silver Phantom looks a little like R2D2 toppled over. Measuring 9.9 by 10.0 by 13.5 inches (HWD), it's a large, rounded design and easily one of the heavier units we've tested, at a whopping 25.1 pounds. It needs a sturdy flat surface, and will eat up a decent amount of space. Devialet makes handsome speaker stands in a few styles, but they start at $329.

Both sides of the white-and-silver-colored Phantom house outward-firing woofers, and the front, rounded face houses a silver-domed front-firing tweeter. The slight upward angle of the system helps this driver line up with your ears, depending on where you place.

This speaker is capable of delivering up to 3,000 watts of audio—it's insanely powerful. Internally, it utilizes a TI PCM1798 24-bit/192kHz digital-to-analog converter to deliver audio through the tweeter, midrange, and dual bass drivers. The side-firing woofers vibrate and move back and forth on tracks with strong bass. The company claims the Phantom will "shake your bones."

The Silver Phantom, as with all other Phantoms, is a mono speaker. Therefore, if you want true stereo audio, you need two—a Silver Phantom duo will cost you $5109, which includes the Devialet Dialog wireless hub that allows for a more reliable wireless streaming experience. Or you can add as many Phantoms as you like—you can sync up to 24.

A cap, attached to the thick yellow power cable, pops off the back panel and covers the actual power cable connection, as well as an Ethernet port and an optical input. Above this area, there's a power button, but beyond that, the Silver Phantom is devoid of controls.

That's where the free Devialet Spark app for Android and iOS comes in. The app walks you through the setup process with your Wi-Fi network—once connected, you can stream audio from your phone over your personal Wi-Fi network, though Bluetooth is also an option. The app can access your mobile device's music library, or streaming services such as Deezer, Qobuz, and Tidal, if you have subscriptions—but you need the aforementioned Devialet Dialog box for this, which is an extra $329.

The app is also where you can assign rooms/zones and names to multiple Phantoms. Navigating your device's music menu can be a tad annoying. That said, we've seen far worse apps—overall, Spark is logically organized, but scrolling forever to reach a section of the alphabet can be a tad tedious.

Other than the manual and power cable, the Silver Phantom ships with no accessories—a little surprising given the price. Cables for the Ethernet and optical connections would've been nice.

Performance

On tracks with intense sub-bass content, like the Knife's "Silent Shout," the Phantom lets its bass fury be known—it can deliver serious bass depth, and do so at exceptionally high volumes. Your frames will fall off your walls, most likely, before you can top out the speaker's volume. At high-but-not-insane volume levels, it delivers a powerful thump and a crisp high-mid and high frequency presence to match.

Bill Callahan's "Drover," a track with far less deep bass in the mix, gives us a better sense of the overall sound signature. The drums on this track can sound overly thunderous on systems that boost the bass too much and like thin tapping on systems that don't reproduce much low-end. Through the Silver Phantom, the drums sound natural—there's definitely a little bit of added bass depth, but nothing over the top. Callahan's baritone vocals have a rich low-mid presence here, and also receive plenty of treble edge, giving them some added contour. This is a crisp, well-defined sound with some realistic bass presence. There's not much that the Silver Phantom overly boosts.

On Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild," the high-mid presence of the kick drum loop's attack is ideal, giving it the sharpness it needs to slice through the layers of the mix. The sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat are delivered with gusto here—a serious subwoofer presence, highlighting again the speaker's ability to push out thick low-end when the mix calls for it. At even moderate volumes, you get a true sense of the ominous lows this track packs. Yet, the vocals never sound outmatched, nor does the balance of the mix seem out of whack—the vocal performances are delivered with excellent clarity and never sound overly sibilant.

On orchestral tracks, like the opening scene in John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary, the lower register instrumentation gets some slight added richness in the low-mids, but it's the higher register brass, strings, and vocals that get most of the spotlight—they're delivered with a crisp, well-defined presence in the highs. When this track does occasionally summon some real bass depth, the Silver Phantom delivers it with a natural, full sound. This may not exactly be a flat response system, but the lows are delivered fairly accurately for the most part, only dialed up when the mix actually calls for it.

Conclusions

The Devialet Silver Phantom sounds fantastic, which is what you'd hope to hear about a $2,400 speaker. But considering that many wireless speakers can operate in either stereo or mono when used as a single unit, it's hard to see why Devialet didn't opt to go a similar route when designing the Phantom. By the time you've purchased dual Silver Phantoms for a stereo experience, along with speaker stands so that audio is delivered in an ideal manner, and the necessary Dialog box, you'll have spent over $6,000. You can buy a pair of Martin Logan electrostatic speakers, add in a subwoofer, an excellent integrated amplifier/stereo receiver, and a wireless transmitter, all for less than that.

Sticking with your one-stop wireless options, the Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Wireless, the B&O Play Beolit 17, and the multi-room Sonos Play:5 are all excellent options with stereo channel delivery. The mono Silver Phantom may be significantly more powerful, but it doesn't sound so much better that we can recommend it for the price.

Devialet Silver Phantom

Devialet Silver Phantom

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